Continuous media systems may be used to provide real-time data, such as video data, audio data, haptic data, avatar data, and application coordination data, to end users.
Continuous media systems face a number of challenges. First, the systems may need to be able to transmit the data from a storage location to a client location so that the client can display, playback, or otherwise use the data in real time. For example, the systems may need to provide streaming video data for real-time display of a movie. If the real-time constraints are not satisfied, the display may suffer from disruptions and delays, termed “hiccups.” In order to reduce disruptions, continuous media clients generally include a buffer for storing at least a portion of the media data prior to display to the user.
Additionally, continuous media systems need to deal with large data objects. For example, a two-hour MPEG-2 video with a 4 Megabit per second (Mb/s) bandwidth requirement is about 3.6 Gigabytes (GB) in size.
Available continuous media servers generally fall within one of two categories: single-node, consumer oriented systems (for example, low-cost systems serving a limited number of users), and multi-node, carrier class systems (for example, high-end broadcasting and dedicated video-on-demand systems).